Homeschool Fever

“You can’t go home again.”

When someone repeats this age-old saying, what do you think they are referring to?  The “home” they are illuding to is something beloved from the past.  It’s a place, a time, a memory of people and things long past.  It’s a feeling of belonging and longing for something good someone once had.

As we age, time passes, and inevitably things and people pass away also - including the home of our childhood.  Senior citizens can often be heard reminiscing about their childhood and parents long since passed on.  The sincerity in their voices and twinkling of memory in their eyes leaves no doubt that those were happy times for them.

What kind of home are you building for your children to remember?

As senior citizens someday, will they look back on homes where they only saw their mother and father for an hour before being shuffled off to bed?  Will they think back on childhood as a time where they had to walk on eggshells, afraid of causing a fight or getting yelled at by an overstressed parent?  Will they remember the rushed meals at McDonald’s or having to make their own boxed Mac & Cheese with fondness? 

Will they have memories of chaos?  Will trash, dirty dishes, dirty laundry, and other clutter stuffed into every available crevice filing their minds and childhod mental scrapbook?   Or, will the pristine, immaculately large home be remembered in disgust because of never being allowed to enjoy home for fear of ruining something?  What smells will they remember?  What sights, sounds, and feelings will they associate with the home of their childhood?

Those memories of tomorrow are being created by you today.

Each moment, each minute, each hour, and each day that you go about your life will someday become the collective memories of “home” in each of your children’s lives. 

How do you want them to remember?  You have the power to influence whether those memories will someday be looked back upon fondly…or with disgust.

According to God’s Word, the husband is head of the family, giving him the heavy duty of being responsible for the financial and spiritual well-being of the family.  He is the material provider - the CEO.  What a huge burden to be saddled with!

However, as the woman…wife..mother.., you are the manager of the home.  Your attitudes, feelings, and emotions control the “thermometer” inside your home.  The inside of your home reflects your personal inner life.  If the woman of the home is in inner turmoil, you can rest assured the house keeping - and attitudes of the rest of the family - reflects that! 

Mothers:  The inner peace, happiness, tranquility, character, and future memories of home depend on you!

So what does this mean?

Does this mean you become a maid-slave to your family? No.

Does this mean you aren’t allowed to have bad days? No.

Creating beautiful memories of home for your children involves 2 main ingredients:

1. Attitude
2. Atmosphere

Attitude

Do you have character?  By that I mean strong, inner determination to stay on the path of good daily.  Does what you do behind closed doors match up to how you tell your children to act in public?  Do you meet each day with an inner joy or do you mutter complaints about anything and everything? 

Children are sponges in that they will soak up the attitude you leak out inside your home.  No matter how many moral lessons you teach them, they will never learn them if you do not exibit the traits yourself.  Good character is not just doing good in front of others, but doing good in private as well - and doing it towards those who matter most. 

Calmness, joy, strength, peace, patience, wisdom, orderliness, happiness, laughter, selflessness, and determination are all bits of character that, if displayed throughout the years, will create beautiful memories for your child. 

Atmosphere

When you step inside your home, does it reflect your family?  A happy home atmosphere doesn’t mean you have to live in a million dollar mansion or have modern furniture.  Atmosphere has nothing to do with “keeping up with the Joneses” - and everything to do with “keeping up with your family.”  Atmosphere evokes the best of the earth’s sights, sounds, smells, and tastes for your family.

Trash, dirty dishes, dirty laundry, clutter, collections, and all of the meaningless “stuff” in life do not contribute to the happy home memories your children will have someday.  The things of your child’s life are not what matters.  It’s the feeling your child has when entering your home that counts!

Do you keep an orderly home?  Are you a good manager of the rooms God has entrusted you to take care of?  Keeping a tidy home doesn’t mean becoming a disrespected maid or keeping it in immaculate condition at all times.  A tidy home is one where clutter is gone, trash is thrown away, surfaces are essentially clean, and everything has it’s place.  If something is moved out of place, fine - just as so as it’s soon put back where it belongs!  A messy home evokes feelings of disorder, anger, and disharmony.  A tidy home provides peace, rest and relaxation.  Don’t think you are capable of developing good household management skills?  I assure you it can be done.  Flylady.net is a great place to start!

Other elements of atmosphere include those of sound, smell, & taste.  Take a moment and listen carefully to the noises of your home.  What do you hear?  Yelling?  Bickering?  The sound of a ballgame?  Laughter?  Sound is very important to providing us with memorable atmosphere.  Studies have shown that peaceful music and nature sounds has a huge impact on the senses in the home.  Turn on some classical music, playing softly in the background, or purchase a nature sound machine or table top waterfall.  Turn off the television!  Disarm your own bickering attitude (remember, you can only change yourself - and as a mother, your attitude leaks out to the rest of the family).  Books on CD or even windchimes sounding through the window add to the peaceful atmosphere. 

As for smell, take a deep breath after returning from being away for a while.  When living somewhere, our senses become dull to the normal smells of the household.  Treat your family to new smells (and tastes!) daily, with freshly baked bread (very easy to do in a bread machine!), a homecooked meal, cinnimon & allspice simmering on the stove, a pot of soup boiling for dinner, a few soy candles burning throughout, freshly cut flowers, or a new glade plugin.

The final part of atmosphere invokes the simple gift of time.  No memory of “home” can be created if you or your family are not together…at home…on a consistant basis!  Remember, you do have the ability to control the busyness of life with one simple word:  No!

Don’t let the worldly pressure
to be, see, and rush to do everything
rob your family of God’s most precious
memory making tool - time together.